Passamezzo antico

The passamezzo antico is a ground bass or chord progression that was popular during the Italian Renaissance and known throughout Europe in the 16th century.[2] The progression is a variant of the double tonic: its major mode variant is known as the passamezzo moderno.

Passamezzo antico Playⓘ
Passamezzo and Romanesca melodic formula[1] Playⓘ.

The sequence consists of two phrases as follows: (For an explanation of this notation see Chord progression)

i VII i V
IIIVIIi Vi

Though usually in the key of G minor,[1] in the key of A minor this gives:

Am G Am E
CGAm EAm

The romanesca is a variant of the passamezzo antico, where the first chord is the III (e.g., a C major chord in A minor). A famous example is "Greensleeves".

The passamezzo antico chord changes are found, knowingly or not, in modern popular music culture: Carrie Underwood's debut album Some Hearts has two examples, "Before He Cheats" (a big U.S. hit in 2006) and "Starts with Goodbye".

Sources
  1. Apel, Willi (1997). The History of Keyboard Music to 1700, p.263. Trans. Tischler, Hans. ISBN 0-253-21141-7.
  2. van der Merwe, Peter. 1989. Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, p.207. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.


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